This Medvedev comment about the fact that aliens are a reality is similar to June 27, 1981 when President Ronald Reagan disclosed that the idea of ETs visiting the earth was reality. According to Steven Spielberg who was in the theatre room

He just stood up and he looked around the room, almost like he was doing a headcount, and he said, ‚ÄúI wanted to thank you for bringing E.T. to the White House. We really enjoyed your movie,‚ÄĚ and then he looked around the room and said, ‚ÄúAnd there are a number of people in this room who know that everything on that screen is absolutely true.‚ÄĚ

Like the Reagan statement in front of 40 very prominent Americans who were in the theatre with Reagan and Spielberg, the major media will probably ignore the story or write it up as a joke. One possible example of why this will happen was hinted at in a recent book by CIA agent Chase Brandon who wrote in his science fiction book "The Cryptos Conundrum" ¬†¬†

William Colby served as CIA director in both the Nixon and Ford administrations. When he'd been replaced as Agency head two years ago by George H. W. Bush, one of Colby's parting, public comments had been, "The CIA owns everyone of any significance in the major media..."

Update 2

Here is a good video link of Medvedev answering the alien question. It does not appear from this video that he was joking around

From Russian researcher Paul Stonehill in reply to a question by Giuliano Marinkovic

Greetings, Mr. Marinkovic.

From my review of the most recent reaction to Medvedev's pronouncement among Russian UFO researchers, he made a joke. I tend to agree with this assessment. Wry Russian humor. Let's see what develops. I will update you and others.Have a great week.

Lest people make the wrong conclusion:

Russia‚Äôs Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was really making a joke in his statement about aliens; this is the opinion of reputable Russian and Ukrainian UFO researchers and authors of UFO phenomenon books. One of them questions the reason Medvedev was asked this question: Medvedev was surprised, and as a result, made a crude mistake. He thinks some of the elements of the question are missing. But my colleague believes Medvedev made a joke.

One of my Ukrainian colleagues mentioned that no one in the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States,¬† a regional organization whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics, formed during the breakup of the Soviet Union) perceives it anything other than a joke, and the style of this humor is very much Medvedev‚Äôs.

Yet another prominent Russian ufologist, Vadim Chernobrov, told me that this was certainly a brilliant joke, and example of how it is possible, under conditions of the glasnost*, to evade answering a precise question.¬†

*Glasnost was Gorbachev‚Äôs policy that called for increased openness and transparency in government institutions and activities in the Soviet Union.

Paul Stonehill

Researcher and lecturer

Author of Paranormal Mysteries of Eurasia

Co-author of Russia‚Äôs Roswell Incident and other books with Philip Mantle

Update 5

The Moscow Times today reported on the anger by Soviet officials of the leak of the post interview questions by reporters of Medvedev on Friday. Strangely there was no discussion of the alien question that had been watched closely by UFO researchers around the world.

So far there have been no comments from researchers at the Moscow Times site.

Update 6

The UK Telegraph and Wall Street Journal have picked up the story of the cameras that continued to roll after the Medvedev interview by fiove reporters. The two newspapers mention an remark Medvedev made about Putin coming late to meetings which apparently may cause him some trouble. Both pick up on Medvedev referring to investigators as "bastards" after the raided a film crew doing a documentary on the opposition. Neither paper made any mention of the alien remark comments. Of interest in the Wall Street Journal blog article is that Medvedev's spokesman was confronted with the five minute post interview leaked audio - "A spokeswoman for Mr. Medvedev declined to comment 'on eavesdropped conversations.'"

There has been some official comments related to the Medvedev "alien" comments. They will be reported on as soon as all researchers involved have reported in. Hopefully this will be within a week.

Update #8

Some interesting material this morning from Robert who runs Exopolitics Germany

I had Medvedev‚Äôs statement independently translated and verified by two Russian-speaking translators. The subtitles are more or less accurate. When the first video popped up, I was astonished because his answer to the relatively short reporter question appears quite elaborate and serious. I was wondering how Medvedev could come up with such a complex answer in such a short time. However, shortly afterwards, I was informed about another video which is longer at the beginning. There you can see the complete reporter question, which is:

‚ÄúMost people are of the opinion that the newly-elected president receives a lot of files‚ÄĚ‚Ä¶ (here you can see Medvedev starting to laugh) ‚Äú‚Ä¶with ‚ÄėTop Secret‚Äô written on it‚Ä¶‚ÄĚ (Medvedev serious again) ‚Äú‚Ä¶and that all the secrets of the world are contained therein, and that you know absolutely everything. Now, for example, have extraterrestrials visited the Earth?‚ÄĚ

Thanks to Oleg at the Exopolitics Institute we have a video that clearly show Dmitry Medvedev to have a straight face and sense of humor. Everyone interested in the Medvedev statement must watch this.¬†

Russian Embassies have been contacted for comments on the Medvedev statemnt. One reply is back and we are waiting for the second one.

Update #10

Medvedev on Outer Space

‚ÄúSometime we will be able to conquer other planets, other stellar systems. I don‚Äôt know how soon will we be able to achieve that, but I think that mankind will always try to follow these two approaches simultaneously ‚Äď on the one hand, the dream of exploring outer space, and, on the other hand, a truly pragmatic approach to outer space, which may bring both scientific and practical benefits."

Some members of the European Union (EU)¬†Parliament apparently were influenced by Medvedev's remarks, and want the issue raised in the EU parliament. The key member has been contacted and an update will be provided as soon as I have details of what they would like to do.

Update #12

The female reporter who asked the alien question of Dmitry Medvedev was Marianna Maksimovskaya one of the top people at the REN-TV network which is the largest private broadcaster in Russia

of October 2011, Maksimovskaya was still in charge of news broadcasts on REN TV. Due to her activities, the channel remains arguably Russia's the only major TV outlet with liberal views, discussing the problem of state censorship and showing interviews with leaders of the political fringe.

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The question that has not been answered yet, is did REN request that this question be asked, and was there a follow-up by the reporter to determine if Medvedev was telling the truth or just joking.

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Update #13

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UFO researcher Dr. Bruce Maccabee reports, "I was interviewed back in November by a person working for REN TV and doing a documentary on UFOs."

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Update #14

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The Russian documentary "Men in Black" that Dmitry Medvedev may have been referring to when asked the alien question was made by the same TV network (REN-TV) that employed Marianna Maksimovskaya who asked the "alien" question earlier this month.

The fact that Dr. Bruce Maccabee was just interviewed for what appears to be another UFO documentary being created by REN-TV indicates that the alien question put to Medvedev may be dealt with in the new documentary.